2011 Multimedia Senior Thesis Catalog
Table of Contents 1
Introduction
2
Da’shanna Brantley
3
Tsveta Dimitrova
4
Quizayra Gonzolez
5
Kylie Hoffman
6
Ben Jewett
7
Alex Stockman
8
Ryan Varano
9
Andrew Zahn
About Multimedia In the Department of Multimedia, we make things that matter.
All Multimedia students are dedicated to their work in and outside of school. Many apply what
From Gutenberg to Torvald, new technologies have always created opportunities and
they learn to successful freelance careers while still at the University. All of them benefit from
challenges. The Multimedia program at the University of the Arts exists in this world of
having a dedicated group of like-minded individuals available to help and critique their work.
possibilities and is educating a group of pioneers who expect to do exciting things outside
While students work together often, they’re encouraged to be independent, to test their abilities,
the boundaries of the traditional.
and to explore the creative space around them on their own.
Multimedia students get one of the broadest educations available. With classes covering
What is Multimedia? It is learning how to integrate sound, image, text, physical objects, space,
subjects ranging from Dada to Interface Design, Multimedia majors are encouraged to
and interactivity into new experiences and applications. By questioning and responding to the
question, to experiment, and to push their talents to the limit – and beyond. Their classrooms
world today, our students will envision and shape the world tomorrow. There are, after all, no
are both battlegrounds for new ideas and applications and playgrounds for fun and creativity.
limits in a world open to people who create things that matter.
As one might expect in such a landscape, Multimedia students learn through play, handson experimentation, and practical application. The curriculum is flexible, and students are encouraged to take electives in other majors and minors within the College and University.
Hear My Words De’shanna Brantley Hear My Words is a video that displays sound and images of domestic violence. This project is an audio diary of eight poems, written from the point of view of both the abuser and the abused. The images and effects used correlate to what the poem is conveying. This project allows individuals to listen to the stories that domestic violence victims have struggled with. Hear My Words is an installation piece shown in small, dark space to emphasize its significance.
Hear My Words
Making Friends Tsveta Dimitrova Making Friends is an interactive video installation that re-imagines the process of encountering and understanding a new entity—and the moment at which we let it influence our opinion. Communication between us and another becomes influential only when we allow it to (if we are in the right mind set). Making Friends provides the environmental settings for fluctuating control, interpretation, judgement, curiosity, and acceptance or rejection—ultimately leading to a personal reflection.
Making Friends
For Future Reference Quizayra Gonzalez Set in Philadelphia and the Dominican Republic, For Future Reference is a documentary based a newly widowed mother and the grieving process she went through after her husbands death. During the first year after her husbands passing, Brunilda Gonzalez tried to get her life together while running a business and dealing with family problems. The camera, which served as a witness to Brunilda’s difficult journey, documents a family’s struggle to understand such a loss. On the surface, For Future Reference is a rich study of family dynamics and bodega culture; but at the heart lies a daughter looking to her mother, and waiting for her guidance.Â
For Future Reference
HOUSE Kylie Hoffman HOUSE is an installation about the repetition and specific order in daily life. This repetition or regularity is something that can consume a person. This structure and momentum often may also offer a certain comfort to a person. I am displaying the everyday objects in a house and routines that people become accustomed to and may clutch to, instead of doing things that are out of the norm or authentic. These tasks also offer a space or platform for individuals to fantasize or day dream, rejecting where they are in the present. Â
HOUSE
Era Ben Jewett Societies across the world are as diverse as they are standard. It is nearly impossible to calculate the effect that small circumstances and occurrences have on our cultural landscape. In contrast, natural human needs and behaviors drastically define common global occurrences. War over territory and resources is a ubiquitous trend in our history, and our present. Era is a game that exemplifies these empiricist struggles—how territories and relationships are established between neighboring settlements, and how larger conglomerates may emerge to follow one banner. Players can control the expansion and defense of their empire, defining the development of its technological pursuits to fit its purpose and ability. Through allegiances and vendettas, Era provides both competitive gameplay as well as a narrative introduced through suggestive imagery and generated worlds.
ERA
Architecture Exploration Alex Stockman Architecture Exploration (Philadelphia) is an interactive website in which architecture enthusiasts throughout greater Philadelphia can share their favorite spots of architecture. Users can log in and share these spots on the central crux of the site—an interactive map of Philadelphia. Under each location the user can write a description of the point of interest. Users can search the database for a locations based on tags and titles. Points of interest on the map allow the user to click anywhere on the Google map button for a 360-degree view of the area. The goal of the site is to help architecture enthusiasts throughout the city create and build relationships with one another. Through a growing database of architectural spots, Architecture Exploration furthers its goal by promoting people to get out and experience over 300 years of our city’s architectural spots that might have been previously unknown to others.
A
Architectural Exploration
IRL Ryan Varano IRL is Internet shorthand for “In Real Life”. It is most commonly used in dating and “hook-up” sites. In the age of social networking and dating sites, IRL takes a look at the personas our online profiles create. Do we step up to the personalities we post, or do we hide behind false credentials to make up for the areas of life in which we lack? IRL is about wading through the dead bodies of the living and putting our voices out there on the Internet in hopes that someone will pick up on our signal. The fact remains that within the spaces of the Internet reserved for aiding in the human reaction called love, we are adapting to meeting people for the first time via the written word and a few snapshots taken in the bathroom mirror. The Internet plays a part in all of of this, but the only part it was “born” to perform. With this in mind not only do we have responsibility to others, but the systems that support our online activity. It is a symbiotic relationship; the sites would not exist without our participation, and our lives of meeting peple online would not thrive without the sites. We feed each other so much that IRL takes a peak at the obvious conversation of the cold Internet wrapping around one of the warmest human emotions.
IRL
AZM Andrew Zahn AZM is an experimental instrument built for use in performance. The instrument was built entirely from the ground up, from the physical enclosure to the software. The concept was inspired by textures and patterns in nature as well as an urban environment. Much of the sounds produced organically change over time as the piece is preformed. When looking at the patterns found in nature juxtaposed with the textures of urban spaces, similarities emerge. How deep do these patterns go? How closely can we relate these two types of environments? To what extent does isolating or layering these patterns help us see or hear them in a new light? By building a soundscape that’s constantly evolving from patterns and equations that reflect these two environments, what new patterns will emerge?
AZM
Credits This catalogue was completed under the instruction of Jeremy Beaudry for the 2011 Multimedia Senior class of The University of the Arts. All content is credited to the senior class, and all design is credited to the Exhibition & Promotion design team. Members of the design team include: David Boyd, Erica Peterson, Christopher German, and Marcus Waldron.